


Legacy

by Katie_P



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Canon Compliant, Far Future, Future Fic, Gen, Speculation, tying up loose ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 05:37:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12810777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie_P/pseuds/Katie_P
Summary: The Ares missions were only the beginning of humanity's quest to become a multi-planetary species.  Those missions, and Ares III in particular, left an enduring and sometimes surprising legacy on the red planet.





	Legacy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vanillafluffy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillafluffy/gifts).



> This story takes place in the year 2076, well after the Ares III mission finally returns to Earth in 2037. This story is a stand-alone, though it fits into my Earth Zero universe.

**legacy** – _noun_ : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past ([Merriam-Webster online](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legacy))

The rover came to a stop at the edge of a crater. Two astronauts climbed out of the cab. Their neon green suits stood in sharp contrast to the rusty red landscape. 

“OK, Spot, time to get to work,” a female voice said over the radio's local channel as the astronaut retrieved a control box from a compartment on the rover and clipped it to her suit.

The other astronaut rounded the vehicle to a set of controls for the rover's crane. The crane's arm lifted, then swung around. Two bands cradled a compact, boxy mechanical form. It was the same fluorescent green color as the astronauts' suits.

“Wake her up, J.B.” a second female voice said.

J.B. flipped a switch on the control box. 

Four legs unfolded from the machine and hung in midair.

“You can put her down now, Andi,” J.B. said. 

Andi slowly lowered the quadruped robot to the ground. Its legs adjusted to the uneven terrain under its feet as it made contact with the surface. 

Andi unhooked the carry straps from the crane's hook. “There you go, Spot,” she said.

J.B. pressed another button on the controller and Spot trotted around the rover to stand next to her.

Andi handed J.B. a walking stick. “Climb doesn't look too bad from here,” she said.

J.B. chuckled.

“What?” Andi said.

“Last time you said that you ended up hip-deep in uncompacted powder. Don't jinx us!” J.B. replied.

Andi shook her head inside her helmet. “What was I thinking?”

“C'mon,” J.B. said, poking her walking stick ahead of her. “Let's get some meteorite samples.”

The two astronauts carefully climbed up the rim of the crater. Spot followed them, the quadruped pack robot loaded with the gear they would need to extract samples from the meteorite.

They stopped at the top of the crater rim to survey the terrain. “Primary mass is a klick away, east-southeast, with smaller masses scattered throughout the crater. We'll start with that big one half a klick due east,” Andi said.

“Got it,” J.B. replied. “Let's stay on the rim of the crater and start climbing down over there,” she continued, pointing to a location about one hundred meters away. “Some of these rocks here look like they could start sliding.”

Andi used her walking stick to poke at some of the rocks on the slope just below where they were standing. One rock and then another tumbled, starting a small rockslide. “Good idea,” she said.

The two astronauts and their pack robot slowly made their way into the crater and over to their first target.

The meteorite was sticking out of the floor of the crater about a half meter. J.B. retrieved a small broom from Spot's pack to brush off the outer layer of fine Martian sand that coated almost everything on the planet. She frowned as the red of the dust was replaced by the dull gray of the material underneath. “I thought all the landers and downed satellites were accounted for,” she said.

“What's that?” Andi asked, pausing her photography of the site.

“This isn't a meteorite,” J.B. said, gesturing at the misshapen lump of metal. Even as beat up and weathered as it was, the outlines of engineered structural components were obvious. “It's one of ours.” 

“It can't be,” Andi replied. “This crater is less than forty years old. All of the hardware we've used in that timeframe is accounted for.”

“What year was this crater made?” J.B. asked.

“It was first detected on the 2038 survey,” Andi answered. “But NASA skipped the survey in 2037 because they needed the satellites for...” she trailed off.

“Oh my god,” they said in unison.

“Didn't it hit escape velocity?” Andi asked.

“That was my parents' mission,” J.B. replied. “No one knew where it went after Dad pulled Uncle Mark out. Based on its last known trajectory, it could have either fallen back to the surface or been flung out into deep space. They lost telemetry on it once the Hermes was out of range. Besides, they had more important things to worry about. It was too small for Earth telemetry to pick up, and none of the satellites in Mars orbit back then were oriented to see space debris.” She reached for her radio switch.

“Wait!” Andi stopped her. “We have to know for sure before we call it in.”

“You're right,” J.B. said, turning towards the object in question in the distance. “Let's find out.”

The two astronauts and their robot companion trekked the remaining half kilometer to the center of the crater.

The exposed part of the object half-buried in the Martian regolith was the size of a small car. Andi photographed the entire site while J.B. collected samples from the crater floor. Then both astronauts retrieved brooms from Spot's pack and began clearing the dust.

“J.B.! Over here!” Andi called.

J.B. circled around the object. The outer shell of what was now barely recognizable as the crew capsule of a launch vehicle had been crushed and crumpled when it slammed into the surface of Mars, but the lettering still visible on the hull was unmistakable. 

J.B. thumbed her radio switch to broadcast on the regional frequency. “Echo Base? This is Rover Five. Over.”

“Copy Rover Five. Over,” came the reply.

“We found the Ares Four MAV. Over,” J.B. said.

“Say again, Rover Five. Over,” came the reply after a full minute of silence.

“Echo Base, this is J.B. and Weir. We have located the crash site of the Ares Four MAV. Over.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by [this Tumblr post](http://darthstitch.tumblr.com/post/157808554546/still-on-patrol). In the U.S., lost submarines are considered to be “still on patrol.” I suspect one day we'll apply that same designation to ships lost in space. Ever since reading that post, I've wanted to write a story where someone finds the Ares IV MAV crew capsule years after Mark Watney's successful rescue, but it took a while for me to figure out who should find it, where, and when. 
> 
> Yes, J.B. is the baby we see at the end of _The Martian_ with her parents, Beth Johanssen and Dr. Chris Beck. Her full name is Marcella Grace Johanssen-Beck. 
> 
> [Spot is real](https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot). I fully expect to see some of Spot's descendants working as mission assists alongside humans on Mars someday.
> 
> Echo Base is, indeed, named after the Rebel Base on Hoth. Because NASA is full of sci-fi geeks who still love Star Wars almost a century after the first movie was released. The name is also a hint as to where this particular Mars settlement is located.
> 
> Naming the other astronaut Andi Weir kind of happened by accident. I wanted both astronauts to be female, and the name Andi popped into my head as I was writing, so I went with it. Giving her the last name Weir was the result of me checking a detail in the book, realizing I'd given a character the same nickname as the author, and deciding to just go all in. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ That's how a lot of my writing goes. Half of it is carefully planned and deliberate. The other half is throwing in whatever weird idea passes through my head. It seems to be working pretty well, so far. :-)


End file.
